Though she is best known as an actor this is Krysten Ritter’s second book, Retreat, is fast paced psychological thriller that takes the story of a con and sticks it into a Mexican backdrop. Unlike her previous book this is credited as written with Lindsay Jamieson. The two look to be a great pair and deliver a narrative that moves quickly without feeling like I’d heard it all before.
Liz Dawson is a charismatic con artist who navigates elite social circles, moving from job to job and helps to par the rich from their possessions. We meet her in the middle of breaking into a house and feeling like she needs a change, and then when Isabelle Beresford, a glamorous and obscenely rich socialite, offers Liz a job installing art at her luxurious villa she sees it as an excellent exit strategy.
The plot works well and as the story moves forward there’s a distinct feeling of dread. The pacing is builds tension through a series of scenes that gives the book a kind of cinematic vibe, which Is maybe not surprising given the background of Ritter.
Retreat is an interesting exploration of identity and morality with a fascinating anti hero for a modern audience, sassy, resourceful, and of course deeply flawed. Her backstory starts as a mystery but is filled in as we go along and the decision to set the book in a first person narrative helps to let you see things from her perspective as we learn more about her and how she got to where she is now.
The book is filled with plot twists and for those of us who read lots some did feel a little predictable, and a few coincidences did stretch credulity a little, but these are minor quibbles as Retreat is about the story moving forward and the characters. This could easily fall into the “rich people behaving badly” subgenre but doesn’t and it’s a thriller that isn’t as throwaway as so many “celebrity” written books can be .
In Retreat, Krysten Ritter and Lindsay Jamieson deliver a rollercoaster of intrigue, identity, and betrayal, and their writing partnership could be the start of a great thriller writing team.